November 28, 1895] 



NATURE 



81 



To have conveyed this lesson to the nation should have 

 Ijcen the first duly of the Commission. It is difficult to 

 discover a sentence in the Report which indicates that 

 they appreciate the gravity of the situation in which we 

 are placed 1 Englishmen require but to be led properly 

 at starting — when once they understand what to do, they 

 will help themselves. The extraordinary outburst of 

 educational activity which the country has witnessed 

 during the past twenty years is proof that we are not 

 behind in our estimation of the value of training ; but the 

 amateur fashion in which a very large proportion of our 

 new enterprises have been conducted, shows only too 

 clearly that an ideal is wanted to guide our labours : if we 

 had this, co-ordination of means would naturally follow. 

 We realise, in fact, that our army must be drilled, but we 

 want a new national drill-book, in which the tactics to be 

 adopted are broadly indicated. The Commissioners 

 have only advised us as to the construction of barracks, 

 and the choice of a staff ; still, if we follow their advice 

 and not only choose our staff, the Minister and his 

 Educational Council, wisely, but impose on the latter in 

 the first instance the task of most carefully framing the 

 outlines of a system of tactics, all may yet be well. 



Whatex er may be the shortcomings of the Report in 

 these respects, all who study it must agree that it is 

 a work of the very highest value, drawn up with great 

 skill, and that the recommendations embodied in it merit 

 the most serious consideration. 



In addition to the Report, there are three volumes of 

 minutes of the evidence tendered by eighty-five witnesses ; 

 a fifth volume contains memoranda and answers to Com- 

 missioners' questions ; two others are devoted to the 

 reports of Assistant Commissioners ; and the remaining 

 two contain a summary, an index and statistical tables. 



As the Commissioners point out, a mastery of the 

 details is essential to a comprehension of the problems 

 they had to solve, and an appraisement of the solutions 

 they offer. Perhaps those who can read between the 

 lines may be inclined to draw inferences in some cases 

 different from those arrived at by the Commission ; and it 

 is clear, also, that the evidence is. not all equally trust- 

 worthy—at least one of the Assistant Commissioners' 

 reports having called forth what appear to be just 

 protests. 



The opening section of the Report contains a very 

 brief, but most instructive, historical sketch of the gradual 

 development since 1867 of the various agencies which 

 have induced progress ; four are chiefly referred to : 

 the Elementary Education Act of 1870, the Science and 

 Art Department, the various new University Colleges and 

 the women's colleges, and the Technical Instruction Act ; 

 the work accomplished by voluntary effort, and the great 

 increase in public interest in educational matters being 

 also specially mentioned. Most hopeful in tone, this 

 section is sadly wanting in scale ; while no distinction is 

 made between the work done under the Science and Art 

 Department and by the University Colleges, the reference 

 to University Extension is of the roseate order usually 

 made by its extreme advocates. It is unfortunate that no 

 attempt to estimate the relative values of the different 

 elements of our educational " system " is included in this 

 or the following section. 



The second section deals with the present condition of 

 secondary education in England, under the three heads : 

 authorities exercising control, the existing supply of 

 secondary teaching, and bodies which examine or in- 

 spect. The problems which the survey suggests are then 

 considered, and, among others, the defects are pointed 

 out in the present system of science and art grants, in the 

 supply of schools, and in the provision of scholarships ; 

 but, unfortunately, under this last heading no attempt is 

 made to take fully into account the bad, as well as the 

 good, effect on scholars and schools of scholarships : the 

 subversive effect they have produced at our universities 



NO. 1 36 1. VOL. 53] 



is so generally recognised by competent observers that 

 this subject should have been carefully considered. In- 

 discussing the internal organisation of schools in this 

 section, stress is laid on the need of training for secondarj' 

 teachers. This, perhaps more than any other portion of 

 the Report, requires most careful study in connection with 

 the evidence, and remarks on it must be reserved for a 

 future occasion. The measures to be taken in the 

 training of teachers will undoubtedly be the most vital 

 point in any future legislative action arising out of this 

 Report ; for given good teachers, good work will neces- 

 sarily be done, whatever the conditions may be in other 

 respects. 



A most important paragraph occurs in the summary to 

 this section, which will need to be ver>' carefully dis- 

 cussed, viz. that " In organising the supply of schools, it 

 will be of the utmost importance to provide adequately 

 for the literary type of secondary education, no less than 

 for the scientific and the technical." One question to be 

 considered is whether there should not be a mean type 

 instead of distinct types throughout all the earlier stages, 

 at least, of secondary education. Unfortunately this 

 issue seems never to have been presented to the 

 Commission. 



The third section, which is by far 4he longest, is de- 

 voted to a review of the evidence, and a discussion of the 

 suggestions made by certain witnesses. 



The fourth, and practically the most important, contains 

 the recommendations which are unanimously brought 

 forward by the Commissioners. The primary recommend- 

 ation, to which probably most interest attaches, is that of 

 a Central Authority calculated to bring the State into a 

 fitting relation to secondary education — words deserving 

 of special notice. The proposal made is essentially 

 English in spirit, and thoroughly calculated to fall in with 

 our belief in a decentralised system of local self-govern- 

 ment giving the maximum opportunity to individuals. 

 " So far from desiring that secondary education should 

 be a matter for a department of State to control," say the 

 Commissioners, " we propose to leave the initiative in 

 public action to local authorities, and to prevent even 

 those authorities from superseding the action of in- 

 dividuals. So far from attempting to induce uniformity, 

 we trust that a free and spontaneous variety, and aa 

 open field for experiment and enterprise of all kinds, 

 will be scrupulously observed. We conceive, in short, 

 that some central authority is required, not in order to 

 control, but rather to supervise the secondary' education 

 of the country, not to o\erride or supersede local action, 

 but to endeavour to bring about among the various agencies 

 which provide that education a harmony and co-operation, 

 which are now wanting." 



The Central Authority proposed is a Minister respon- 

 sible to Parliament presiding over a department formed by 

 merging into one body the present Education Depart- 

 ment, the Science and Art Department, and the Charity 

 Commissioners. Apart from other advantages, the ap- 

 pointment of a Minister of Education must have the effect 

 of impressing on public attention the immense national 

 importance of educational affairs ; and much as we have 

 been indebted in the past to the several departments 

 which it is suggested should now be fused into one, 

 their methods are too inelastic to suit modern needs, 

 and the proposed change is probably one which will 

 meet with the approval of all true friends of education. 



It is further proposed to associate with the central 

 authority an Educational Council, not exceeding twelve 

 members, of whom one-third might be appointed by the 

 Crown ; one-third by the four universities of Oxford,. 

 Cambridge, London, and \'ictoria ; whilst the remaining 

 one-third might be co-opted from among experienced 

 members of the teaching profession. This proposal 

 will probably be viewed in very different ways, but it 

 appears to be one which is eminently calculated to pre- 



